Author: Robert A Weinberg
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786724013
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Cancer research has reached a major turning point. The quality and quantity of information gathered about this disease in the past twenty years has revolutionized our understanding of its origins and behavior. No one is better qualified to comment on these dramatic leaps forward than molecular biologist Robert A. Weinberg, director of one of the leading cancer research centers in the world. In One Renegade Cell , Weinberg presents an accessible and state-of-the-art account of how the disease begins and how, one day, it will be cured. Weinberg tells how the roots of cancer were uncovered in 1909 and when the first cancer-causing virus was discovered. He then moves forward to the discovery of the role of chemical carcinogens and radiation in triggering cancer, and relates the remarkable story of the discoveries of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, the master controllers of normal and malignant cell proliferation. This book, which presumes little prior knowledge of biology, describes the revolution in biomedical research that has finally uncovered the forces driving malignant growth. Drawing on insights that simply were not available until recently, the discoveries presented in One Renegade Cell have already begun to profoundly alter the way that we diagnose and treat human cancers.
One Renegade Cell
Author: Robert A Weinberg
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786724013
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Cancer research has reached a major turning point. The quality and quantity of information gathered about this disease in the past twenty years has revolutionized our understanding of its origins and behavior. No one is better qualified to comment on these dramatic leaps forward than molecular biologist Robert A. Weinberg, director of one of the leading cancer research centers in the world. In One Renegade Cell , Weinberg presents an accessible and state-of-the-art account of how the disease begins and how, one day, it will be cured. Weinberg tells how the roots of cancer were uncovered in 1909 and when the first cancer-causing virus was discovered. He then moves forward to the discovery of the role of chemical carcinogens and radiation in triggering cancer, and relates the remarkable story of the discoveries of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, the master controllers of normal and malignant cell proliferation. This book, which presumes little prior knowledge of biology, describes the revolution in biomedical research that has finally uncovered the forces driving malignant growth. Drawing on insights that simply were not available until recently, the discoveries presented in One Renegade Cell have already begun to profoundly alter the way that we diagnose and treat human cancers.
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786724013
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 180
Book Description
Cancer research has reached a major turning point. The quality and quantity of information gathered about this disease in the past twenty years has revolutionized our understanding of its origins and behavior. No one is better qualified to comment on these dramatic leaps forward than molecular biologist Robert A. Weinberg, director of one of the leading cancer research centers in the world. In One Renegade Cell , Weinberg presents an accessible and state-of-the-art account of how the disease begins and how, one day, it will be cured. Weinberg tells how the roots of cancer were uncovered in 1909 and when the first cancer-causing virus was discovered. He then moves forward to the discovery of the role of chemical carcinogens and radiation in triggering cancer, and relates the remarkable story of the discoveries of oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, the master controllers of normal and malignant cell proliferation. This book, which presumes little prior knowledge of biology, describes the revolution in biomedical research that has finally uncovered the forces driving malignant growth. Drawing on insights that simply were not available until recently, the discoveries presented in One Renegade Cell have already begun to profoundly alter the way that we diagnose and treat human cancers.
Racing to the Beginning of the Road
Author: Robert Allan Weinberg
Publisher: W H Freeman & Company
ISBN: 9780716732839
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Details the latest advances in cancer research and the politics involved, and examines the history of cancer theories
Publisher: W H Freeman & Company
ISBN: 9780716732839
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 274
Book Description
Details the latest advances in cancer research and the politics involved, and examines the history of cancer theories
The Philadelphia Chromosome: A Genetic Mystery, a Lethal Cancer, and the Improbable Invention of a Lifesaving Treatment
Author: Jessica Wapner
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
ISBN: 1615191658
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 345
Book Description
One of The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year Philadelphia, 1959: A scientist scrutinizing a single human cell under a microscope detects a missing piece of DNA. That scientist, David Hungerford, had no way of knowing that he had stumbled upon the starting point of modern cancer research— the Philadelphia chromosome. It would take doctors and researchers around the world more than three decades to unravel the implications of this landmark discovery. In 1990, the Philadelphia chromosome was recognized as the sole cause of a deadly blood cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML. Cancer research would never be the same. Science journalist Jessica Wapner reconstructs more than forty years of crucial breakthroughs, clearly explains the science behind them, and pays tribute—with extensive original reporting, including more than thirty-five interviews—to the dozens of researchers, doctors, and patients with a direct role in this inspirational story. Their curiosity and determination would ultimately lead to a lifesaving treatment unlike anything before it. The Philadelphia Chromosome chronicles the remarkable change of fortune for the more than 70,000 people worldwide who are diagnosed with CML each year. It is a celebration of a rare triumph in the battle against cancer and a blueprint for future research, as doctors and scientists race to uncover and treat the genetic roots of a wide range of cancers.
Publisher: The Experiment, LLC
ISBN: 1615191658
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 345
Book Description
One of The Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year Philadelphia, 1959: A scientist scrutinizing a single human cell under a microscope detects a missing piece of DNA. That scientist, David Hungerford, had no way of knowing that he had stumbled upon the starting point of modern cancer research— the Philadelphia chromosome. It would take doctors and researchers around the world more than three decades to unravel the implications of this landmark discovery. In 1990, the Philadelphia chromosome was recognized as the sole cause of a deadly blood cancer, chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML. Cancer research would never be the same. Science journalist Jessica Wapner reconstructs more than forty years of crucial breakthroughs, clearly explains the science behind them, and pays tribute—with extensive original reporting, including more than thirty-five interviews—to the dozens of researchers, doctors, and patients with a direct role in this inspirational story. Their curiosity and determination would ultimately lead to a lifesaving treatment unlike anything before it. The Philadelphia Chromosome chronicles the remarkable change of fortune for the more than 70,000 people worldwide who are diagnosed with CML each year. It is a celebration of a rare triumph in the battle against cancer and a blueprint for future research, as doctors and scientists race to uncover and treat the genetic roots of a wide range of cancers.
Rebel Cell
Author: Kat Arney
Publisher: BenBella Books
ISBN: 1950665518
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Why do we get cancer? Is it our modern diets and unhealthy habits? Chemicals in the environment? An unwelcome genetic inheritance? Or is it just bad luck? The answer is all of these and none of them. We get cancer because we can't avoid it—it's a bug in the system of life itself. Cancer exists in nearly every animal and has afflicted humans as long as our species has walked the earth. In Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution, and the New Science of Life's Oldest Betrayal, Kat Arney reveals the secrets of our most formidable medical enemy, most notably the fact that it isn't so much a foreign invader as a double agent: cancer is hardwired into the fundamental processes of life. New evidence shows that this disease is the result of the same evolutionary changes that allowed us to thrive. Evolution helped us outsmart our environment, and it helps cancer outsmart its environment as well—alas, that environment is us. Explaining why "everything we know about cancer is wrong," Arney, a geneticist and award-winning science writer, guides readers with her trademark wit and clarity through the latest research into the cellular mavericks that rebel against the rigid biological "society" of the body and make a leap towards anarchy. We need to be a lot smarter to defeat such a wily foe—smarter even than Darwin himself. In this new world, where we know that every cancer is unique and can evolve its way out of trouble, the old models of treatment have reached their limits. But we are starting to decipher cancer's secret evolutionary playbook, mapping the landscapes in which these rogue cells survive, thrive, or die, and using this knowledge to predict and confound cancer's next move. Rebel Cell is a story about life and death, hope and hubris, nature and nurture. It's about a new way of thinking about what this disease really is and the role it plays in human life. Above all, it's a story about where cancer came from, where it's going, and how we can stop it.
Publisher: BenBella Books
ISBN: 1950665518
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
Why do we get cancer? Is it our modern diets and unhealthy habits? Chemicals in the environment? An unwelcome genetic inheritance? Or is it just bad luck? The answer is all of these and none of them. We get cancer because we can't avoid it—it's a bug in the system of life itself. Cancer exists in nearly every animal and has afflicted humans as long as our species has walked the earth. In Rebel Cell: Cancer, Evolution, and the New Science of Life's Oldest Betrayal, Kat Arney reveals the secrets of our most formidable medical enemy, most notably the fact that it isn't so much a foreign invader as a double agent: cancer is hardwired into the fundamental processes of life. New evidence shows that this disease is the result of the same evolutionary changes that allowed us to thrive. Evolution helped us outsmart our environment, and it helps cancer outsmart its environment as well—alas, that environment is us. Explaining why "everything we know about cancer is wrong," Arney, a geneticist and award-winning science writer, guides readers with her trademark wit and clarity through the latest research into the cellular mavericks that rebel against the rigid biological "society" of the body and make a leap towards anarchy. We need to be a lot smarter to defeat such a wily foe—smarter even than Darwin himself. In this new world, where we know that every cancer is unique and can evolve its way out of trouble, the old models of treatment have reached their limits. But we are starting to decipher cancer's secret evolutionary playbook, mapping the landscapes in which these rogue cells survive, thrive, or die, and using this knowledge to predict and confound cancer's next move. Rebel Cell is a story about life and death, hope and hubris, nature and nurture. It's about a new way of thinking about what this disease really is and the role it plays in human life. Above all, it's a story about where cancer came from, where it's going, and how we can stop it.
Renegade
Author: J. A. Souders
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0765332450
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
First in a pulse-pounding new young adult SF series with a deadly psychological twist.
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0765332450
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 370
Book Description
First in a pulse-pounding new young adult SF series with a deadly psychological twist.
Life Itself
Author: Boyce Rensberger
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
In Amazing Life, Boyce Rensberger takes readers to the frontlines of cell research with some of the brightest investigators in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. The hottest topics in biomedical research are covered.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 314
Book Description
In Amazing Life, Boyce Rensberger takes readers to the frontlines of cell research with some of the brightest investigators in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology. The hottest topics in biomedical research are covered.
Cancer
Author: Melvyn F. Greaves
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780192628343
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Every day, 1500 Americans die of cancer, and yet for most of us this deadly disease remains mysterious. Why is it so common? Why are there so many different causes? Why does treatment so often fail? What, ultimately, is cancer? In this fascinating new book, a leading cancer researcher offers general readers clear and convincing answers to these and many other questions. Mel Greaves places cancer in its evolutionary context, arguing that we can best answer the big questions about cancer by looking through a Darwinian lens. Drawing on both ancient and more modern evolutionary legacies, he shows how human development has changed the rules of evolutionary games, trapping us in a nature-nurture mismatch. Compelling examples, from the King of Naples intestinal tumor in the 15th century, through the epidemic of scrotal skin cancer in 18th-century chimney sweeps, to the current surge of cases of prostate cancer illustrate his thesis. He also shows why the old paradigms of infectious diseases or genetic disorders have proved fruitless when trying to explain this complex and elusive disease. And finally, he looks at the implications for research, prevention, and treatment of cancer that an evolutionary perspective provides. Drawing on the most recent research, this is the first book to put cancer in its evolutionary framework. At a time when Darwinian perspectives on everything from language acquisition to economics are providing new breakthroughs in understanding, medicine seems to have much to gain from the insights provided by evolutionary biology. Written in an exceptionally lucid and entertaining style, this book will be of broad interest to all those who wish to know more about this dread disease.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780192628343
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 294
Book Description
Every day, 1500 Americans die of cancer, and yet for most of us this deadly disease remains mysterious. Why is it so common? Why are there so many different causes? Why does treatment so often fail? What, ultimately, is cancer? In this fascinating new book, a leading cancer researcher offers general readers clear and convincing answers to these and many other questions. Mel Greaves places cancer in its evolutionary context, arguing that we can best answer the big questions about cancer by looking through a Darwinian lens. Drawing on both ancient and more modern evolutionary legacies, he shows how human development has changed the rules of evolutionary games, trapping us in a nature-nurture mismatch. Compelling examples, from the King of Naples intestinal tumor in the 15th century, through the epidemic of scrotal skin cancer in 18th-century chimney sweeps, to the current surge of cases of prostate cancer illustrate his thesis. He also shows why the old paradigms of infectious diseases or genetic disorders have proved fruitless when trying to explain this complex and elusive disease. And finally, he looks at the implications for research, prevention, and treatment of cancer that an evolutionary perspective provides. Drawing on the most recent research, this is the first book to put cancer in its evolutionary framework. At a time when Darwinian perspectives on everything from language acquisition to economics are providing new breakthroughs in understanding, medicine seems to have much to gain from the insights provided by evolutionary biology. Written in an exceptionally lucid and entertaining style, this book will be of broad interest to all those who wish to know more about this dread disease.
The Cheating Cell
Author: Athena Aktipis
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691163847
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
A fundamental and groundbreaking reassessment of how we view and manage cancer When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don’t necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked because the historical processes that created life also created cancer. The Cheating Cell delves into this extraordinary relationship, and shows that by understanding cancer’s evolutionary origins, researchers can come up with more effective, revolutionary treatments. Athena Aktipis goes back billions of years to explore when unicellular forms became multicellular organisms. Within these bodies of cooperating cells, cheating ones arose, overusing resources and replicating out of control, giving rise to cancer. Aktipis illustrates how evolution has paved the way for cancer’s ubiquity, and why it will exist as long as multicellular life does. Even so, she argues, this doesn’t mean we should give up on treating cancer—in fact, evolutionary approaches offer new and promising options for the disease’s prevention and treatments that aim at long-term management rather than simple eradication. Looking across species—from sponges and cacti to dogs and elephants—we are discovering new mechanisms of tumor suppression and the many ways that multicellular life-forms have evolved to keep cancer under control. By accepting that cancer is a part of our biological past, present, and future—and that we cannot win a war against evolution—treatments can become smarter, more strategic, and more humane. Unifying the latest research from biology, ecology, medicine, and social science, The Cheating Cell challenges us to rethink cancer’s fundamental nature and our relationship to it.
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691163847
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Book Description
A fundamental and groundbreaking reassessment of how we view and manage cancer When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don’t necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked because the historical processes that created life also created cancer. The Cheating Cell delves into this extraordinary relationship, and shows that by understanding cancer’s evolutionary origins, researchers can come up with more effective, revolutionary treatments. Athena Aktipis goes back billions of years to explore when unicellular forms became multicellular organisms. Within these bodies of cooperating cells, cheating ones arose, overusing resources and replicating out of control, giving rise to cancer. Aktipis illustrates how evolution has paved the way for cancer’s ubiquity, and why it will exist as long as multicellular life does. Even so, she argues, this doesn’t mean we should give up on treating cancer—in fact, evolutionary approaches offer new and promising options for the disease’s prevention and treatments that aim at long-term management rather than simple eradication. Looking across species—from sponges and cacti to dogs and elephants—we are discovering new mechanisms of tumor suppression and the many ways that multicellular life-forms have evolved to keep cancer under control. By accepting that cancer is a part of our biological past, present, and future—and that we cannot win a war against evolution—treatments can become smarter, more strategic, and more humane. Unifying the latest research from biology, ecology, medicine, and social science, The Cheating Cell challenges us to rethink cancer’s fundamental nature and our relationship to it.
Dr. Folkman's War
Author: Robert Cooke
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780812974843
Category : Cancer
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
In 1961, twenty-eight-year-old Dr. Judah Folkman saw something while doing medical research in a United States navy lab that gave him the first glimmering of a wild, inspired hunch. What if cancerous tumors, in order to expand, needed to trigger the growth of new blood vessels to feed themselves? And if that was true, what if a way could be found to stop that growth? Could cancers be starved to death? Dr. Folkman had ample reason to be self confident — second in his class at Harvard Medical School, he was already considered one of the most promising doctors of his generation. But even he never guessed that his idea would eventually grow into a multibillion-dollar industry that is now racing through human trials with drugs that show unparalleled promise of being able to control cancer, as well as other deadly diseases. For the creation of this book, Dr. Judah Folkman cooperated fully and exclusively with acclaimed science writer Robert Cooke. He granted Cooke unlimited interviews, showed him diaries and personal papers, and threw open the doors of his lab. The result is an astonishingly rich and candid chronicle of one of the most significant medical discoveries of our time and of the man whose vision and persistence almost single-handedly has made it possible. Dr. Folkman's radical new way of thinking about cancer was once considered preposterous. So little was known about how cancer spreads and how blood vessels grow that he wasn't even taken seriously enough to be considered a heretic. Other doctors shook their heads at the waste of a great mind, and ambitious young medical researchers were told that accepting a position in Folkman's lab would be the death of their careers. Now, though, the overwhelming majority of experts believes that the day will soon come when antiangiogenesis therapy supplants the current more toxic and less-effective treatments — chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery-as the preferred method of treatment for cancer in patients around the world, and Dr. Folkman's breakthrough will come to be taken for granted the way we now take for granted the polio vaccine and antibiotics. Dr. Folkman's War brilliantly describes how high the odds are against success in medical research, how vicious the competition for grants, how entrenched the skepticism about any genuinely original thinking, how polluted by politics and commerce the process of getting medicine into patients' hands. But it also depicts with rare power how exalted a calling medicine can be and how for the rare few—the brilliant, the tireless, and the lucky — the results of success can be world-changing. From the Hardcover edition.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780812974843
Category : Cancer
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
In 1961, twenty-eight-year-old Dr. Judah Folkman saw something while doing medical research in a United States navy lab that gave him the first glimmering of a wild, inspired hunch. What if cancerous tumors, in order to expand, needed to trigger the growth of new blood vessels to feed themselves? And if that was true, what if a way could be found to stop that growth? Could cancers be starved to death? Dr. Folkman had ample reason to be self confident — second in his class at Harvard Medical School, he was already considered one of the most promising doctors of his generation. But even he never guessed that his idea would eventually grow into a multibillion-dollar industry that is now racing through human trials with drugs that show unparalleled promise of being able to control cancer, as well as other deadly diseases. For the creation of this book, Dr. Judah Folkman cooperated fully and exclusively with acclaimed science writer Robert Cooke. He granted Cooke unlimited interviews, showed him diaries and personal papers, and threw open the doors of his lab. The result is an astonishingly rich and candid chronicle of one of the most significant medical discoveries of our time and of the man whose vision and persistence almost single-handedly has made it possible. Dr. Folkman's radical new way of thinking about cancer was once considered preposterous. So little was known about how cancer spreads and how blood vessels grow that he wasn't even taken seriously enough to be considered a heretic. Other doctors shook their heads at the waste of a great mind, and ambitious young medical researchers were told that accepting a position in Folkman's lab would be the death of their careers. Now, though, the overwhelming majority of experts believes that the day will soon come when antiangiogenesis therapy supplants the current more toxic and less-effective treatments — chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery-as the preferred method of treatment for cancer in patients around the world, and Dr. Folkman's breakthrough will come to be taken for granted the way we now take for granted the polio vaccine and antibiotics. Dr. Folkman's War brilliantly describes how high the odds are against success in medical research, how vicious the competition for grants, how entrenched the skepticism about any genuinely original thinking, how polluted by politics and commerce the process of getting medicine into patients' hands. But it also depicts with rare power how exalted a calling medicine can be and how for the rare few—the brilliant, the tireless, and the lucky — the results of success can be world-changing. From the Hardcover edition.
What Evolution Is
Author: Ernst Mayr
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465013198
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
At once a spirited defense of Darwinian explanations of biology and an elegant primer on evolution for the general reader, What Evolution Is poses the questions at the heart of evolutionary theory and considers how our improved understanding of evolution has affected the viewpoints and values of modern man. Science Masters Series
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465013198
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 338
Book Description
At once a spirited defense of Darwinian explanations of biology and an elegant primer on evolution for the general reader, What Evolution Is poses the questions at the heart of evolutionary theory and considers how our improved understanding of evolution has affected the viewpoints and values of modern man. Science Masters Series